Please Help: DVDFAB rip then WMP11 To PS3 - AC3/5.1 Audio

I am getting myself totally confused I think...

I have some DVD's I have ripped (mainmovie then using "vobmerge" rather than vob passthru) which play happilly in 5.1 sound....i have others which don'y play ANY audio....

Does anyone have something they know that works to allow the audio to stream in 5.1 to the ps3 from wmp?

Sorry guys i am just done in trying to work this one out??

What is "vobmerge"? Not a DVDFab function by that name.

It's a different program for merging all the VOB's together...not a dvdfab program....In theory VOB Passthru should do the same as it does but I am finding in practice it doesn't...but it's hit and miss tbh..

Gotcha. Well, not sure how it works or what it does, but if all the original DVDs have the same type audio streams it seems to me it should work. If any of them are DTS, you may need a plug-in for your player. The free version of WinDVD that I use will not play DTS as it sits. If it worked once it should work again, all things being equal.

So let see if I got it, you're ripping with Fab,and using VOBMerge to get one large VOB, then streaming vob to PS3 using WMP11? Try with TVersity...And BTW, what's "hit and miss" ,the merging of vobs or the streaming of AC3 5.1 ch audio?

Yep that's it mate....Tried Tversity....it's the audio thats hit and miss..often it gets absolutely zero audio but it i capture just the AC3/2 channel audio it's fine...but it's ony 2 channel which is not what I want..

It's odd.. Will post some G-Spot screen dumps to show difference between one that works and one that doesn't.

Thanks for the responses so far though...

G-Spot may not tell you the problem as it expects the file to be the same throughout. The PS3 is sensitive to audio delay and audio changes in the beginning of the file. As a test, use DVDFab to make a vob file of only chapter 3 on a movie that has problems and see if the audio works.

Just noticed there is only 1 chapter in the DVD...2:36.00 long..so I can't do a sample...Will try another DVD

Interesting though I also re-tried the Mobile / PS3 option and the AVI produced has about a 2-3 second lag ..audio first then the lip movement...

No idea if that would havegiven me 5.1 audio but I doubt it but given it just doesn't work I wont perseve..

Will do the test you suggest on another dvd and see though ..cheers...

DVDFab doesn't currently support 5.1/6 channel AAC.
I believe it's in their to do list...So using the PS3 profile you'll only get AAC 2channel audio in .mp4 file.....
I love FAB platinum, however at this stage I don't normally use it for PS3 conversions....I just gotta have 5.1/6 channel audio.....but to each their own!....

Have you tried the generic.avi.xvid.audiocopy profile?

I understand that some PS3 owners report being able to play these files and they retain the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound if you select the correct soundtrack.

Also VOB Passthrough profile from Fab should give you a similar result but a larger file size.

You end up with one VOB file and then there is no need to merge, etc.

Problem with the Profile you mention is I see a loss of lip sync in it....On the PC it can be fine but the PS3 lags....

The only format I have found so far that retains the lip sync is the Generic VOB Passthru (and select the audio track - Ac3/51. or AC2 (DTS never works) ) .

Having said that I have just ripped a different DVD and it's come through perfectly in 5.1.

There must be something odd about certain DVD's and the way the Audio is done.

I have to admit to finding the whole thing bizarre..I will try the original DVD again and just the AC3/5.1 exactly as I did on the other DVD.

VOBMerge is only useful if you do MainMOvie to HDD and you can then retain ALL the different Audio within it...and then add all the VOB's together and rename it MPG for WMP11 to stream.

I also wonder if File size has anything to do with it. The one I just streamed happilly was just over 4Gb in size..the one that didn't work was 6Gb in size....it may be a limitation of file size which then screws up the PS3 audio...as complicated said it can be flaky when streaming to the PS3...no kidding! lol

gkinghrn wrote,
"The only format I have found so far that retains the lip sync is the Generic VOB Passthru (and select the audio track - Ac3/51. or AC2 (DTS never works) ) ."

Well why not just keep using that profile? I mean if it works!.....

If Tversity has the same audio issue then it is unlikely to be a file size problem. I routinely stream 6~8GB VOB files created by Mencoder with great results. However, I think Mencoder is automagically fixing any audio/video timecode descrepancy in the original. VOB Passthrough in DVDFab is currently not usable for me because of frame judder issues on the PS3. You are likely a PAL user and do not experience the problem.

Not 100% it doesn't ... that's the issue..somework and some don't....I am starting to wonder if it is a DVD issue though .

And yes you are right Complication I am a PAL user..have read all your various posts on the NTSC frame judder problem and your thread on the PS3 streaming including trying some of those things out...

Oh b**ger...

Retried my orignla DVD in EXACTLY the same way as the one I just did..and.. NO AUDIO at all....

Play it on the pC and it's great....just not the PS3...Have to assume it is a PS3 issue of some sort i guess...thoughts?

Anyone else try this? I suspect it is just DVD's which have AC3/5.1 , AC3/2 AND DTS audio tracks... any DVD's without DTS seem to be ok when you grab just the C3/5.1 audio... (all i grab is the AC3/5.1 Audio btw NOT all 3 - And grabbing all 3 doesnt work either before you ask me )

I get the same behavior if I try to play the second VOB file from a DVD directly (ex. VTS_01_2.VOB), no audio or PS3 reports it as corrupt. I don't think it is the DTS. This is still the same DVD that doesn't have chapters? Maybe you can locate a VOB splitting tool so that you can try a section late in the movie. My guess is that the PS3 is having difficulty matching up the audio and video streams and just decides to omit the audio.

You might also try just the 2 AC3 tracks in case the 2-channel is at the beginning and later cuts to the 5.1.

Will try the VOB splitter as you say...Google will help there .

I have tried every combination of audio track selection ..noe of which work right. Have another one with same audio tracks and will have a go with that now.

Ok ..maybe it is just the one DVD I have problems with here...

Just ripped another one with all the Audio tracks and just took the AC3/5.1 and ignored the AC3/2 and DTS ...And it's perfect.

What I do notice about the other one I can't do "Genesis The Video Show" is that the DVD has a kind of 'start still frame' at the beginning for maybe 3 seconds before it starts the video. Playing the DVD is fine but any kind fo streaming from it seems to have that delay on the audio even on the PC where as the PS3 just wont play it..

Reading this thread below it makes me think splitting the Video might be the answer....

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f116/high-q...s3-244789-new/

*QUOTE*
Thanks for all the hard work. I was shaking my head in frustration with the appearance of some DVDs on the PS3 until I came across your post. Just wanted to add a couple audio related things I noticed while using your two approaches. As far as audio drift with the tsmuxer/pulldown/imagompeg-muxer approach, I noticed two cases that seem to hold (at least in the few DVDs I've tried so far). If during the tsmuxer stage, you get the message "Warning! Source stream contains irregular pulldown marks" in the error box, then you will have audio drift and must use the mencoder approach. If you don't get this message, however, everything seems to work great.

Another thing that wasn't mentioned specifically here is that I found some VOBs have no sound when played on the PS3 even though they work fine on the PC, etc. The one instance where this happened, I noticed in tsmuxer that the "Delay (in ms)" field (when you click on an AC3/etc. audio stream) was non-zero. Of the intro and 5 episode VOBs I split out of the offending DVD using DVD Shrink, the one with zero delay played fine, but all the others with varying (-) 20-80 ms delays had no sound. I believe they were negative, but can't remember for sure (I already deleted the VOBs). In any case, I was able to correct this by simply demuxing with tsmuxer, then remuxing with imagompeg-muxer (i.e. no pulldown removal or anything else). The de/remuxed file played fine with sound.

Anyway, just thought these two things might help others...
***************

After lots of work on this it now seems to work on every video I try ..even the troublesome one of Genesis... Not sure iof the combination of 5.05 and stopping using WMP11 and switching to Tversity RC1 as a the streamer was the solution but I now have faultless Video and 5.1 DD and even on troublesome stuff I can get the Linear PCM audio albeit 2 channel , out as well and properly synced..oh and I can also fast forward through the video's seemlessly without getting DLNA errors now which i got with WMP11.

Happy bunny now....